A couple of weeks ago, Kagro X wrote this diary about Jim McGovern's Bill calling for troop withdrawal from Iraq. In it he noted that a number of Democrats were not planning to vote for the bill, and indeed it did not pass. I didn't get around to calling my Representative before the vote, but I did call another Representative, Jerry McNerney (not my own) just now, which I consider better late than never. I called Jerry because I spent two days canvassing for him, door-to-door, and I talked to quite a lot of people about his stance on the war in Iraq.
Jerry's stance was that his son, serving in Iraq, had convinced him we needed a new course. So I was surprised to see his name on the list of Democrats who voted no on HR 2237. Actually, 'surprised' is not quite strong enough.
I felt good about making this call though, and because I was able to say that I had spent two days going door-to-door for Jerry I felt that my call might have more weight than the many other calls I've made to elected representatives over the years. I hadn't anticipated this consequence of canvassing -- the ability to go back to the person on individual votes later on and say: "I spent my time, voluntarily, helping you to get elected, and I told other people you believed X. Why are you now doing Y?"